By John DeGoede

I have had many amazing flights and experiences since first learning to paraglide in the summer of 2003 in Cashmere under the excellent instruction of Doug and Denise. It would have been hard to choose my favorite flight until last summer when I had the flight of my life and flew a straight-distance of 76 miles on a DHV 1-2 glider during the 2008 Pre-PWC in Chelan.

Like many paraglider pilots, shortly after learning to fly, I became interested in XC flying and competing. Since then I’ve done some XC flights and have competed twice. But I fly a DHV 1-2 glider, so competing and doing long distance flights can be challenging. My farthest straight-distance flight had been 18 miles.

In the last several years especially, I began to have a strong desire to fly a lot further than 18 miles. I decided a great place for me to attempt a far flight would be over the flatlands (flats) of eastern Washington. This area is famous for its great XC potential.

I spent at least a year studying detailed maps and aerial photos on the internet at MapQuest of all the possible routes. Also, I read everything about flatland XC flying that I could get my hands on. I dreamed of flying all the way to Wilbur, or better yet, to Davenport someday. I knew this was a lofty goal, especially on a 1-2 glider, but at least I could try.

I decided that during the Pre-PWC comp would be a good time to attempt this flight. One of the reasons for this was that I was hoping at least part of my XC flight I could fly with other experienced pilots who would help mark out the lift and thus increase my chances of flying far.

So I headed to Chelan with my mom and my sister, who is also a pilot, a few days before the comp with plans to try to fly as far as I could everyday. Some of the competitors had arrived early to practice for the comp, and the weather was looking good for the next couple of days. We were able to get in some flights and some pilots were able to fly XC.

On Monday the comp started. Every flying day, before and during the comp, I had attempted to head out to the flats to fly XC. But on the second to the last comp task, and the fifth flying day for me now, it happened again; I was either unable to make it across the Columbia River to the flats or I did make it across but landed shortly after near the rim (the cliff on the east side of the river where the flats begin).

One of the most frustrating things was that many other pilots were flying fairly far on a lot of these days. It could be done, but for one, I was flying a DHV 1-2 glider, and so it was a lot more difficult to arrive at the rim with enough altitude to get a thermal, especially considering that most of the days the usable lift didn’t go much above 8K. I had no problem flying and getting high. I was able to get as high, or higher, than many pilots. I was just unable to make it across the river and arrive with enough altitude at the rim to search for a thermal. I began to wonder if it was just my glider and that I needed to switch to a glider with higher performance. But then again I had never flown very far and was also wondering about my ability to fly far even if I did have a higher performance wing and was able to get established over the flats. I began to think I had way over-reached for the stars and that I was being faced with the reality of the difficulty of 50 - 100 mile flights.

But on Saturday, August 2^nd, the last day of the comp and the day before I planned to return home, things turned out quite different. We woke up to epic looking skies with cumulus clouds, and the forecast showed light winds with cloudbase around 10K. I was excited for another opportunity to attempt to fly far. We arrived at launch and there were cumies drifting slowly from the west high over launch. I was especially excited about the clouds. It shouldn’t be too difficult to cross the river if I drift under a cloud!

I launched about one minute before the launch window opened for the competitors and was able to climb up to cloudbase. My strategy/plan was to wait for the start of the task and then fly with the competitors so that I would maximize my chances of locating lift. I was planning to eventually alter my course from theirs since the task was a triangle that started with a leg heading toward the city of Farmer, which is further south than I planned to fly.

But by the time the task started at 12:40, I had gotten low and had to spend an hour getting high enough to attempt to cross the river. And finally when I got high again and was ready to cross, the clouds had cleared away over launch and there were very few pilots around. So much for drifting under a cloud or crossing and flying with other pilots! But there was a lot of lift everywhere and few pilots had sunk out. Today was definitely different from the other previous days, and I could see awesome cloud streets over the flats.

So I headed out over the river by myself. I found a thermal halfway over and arrived high at the rim where I got another thermal in which I drifted in over to the power lines. By this time I was really excited. I had passed the rim and was established high over the flats!

The sky was an XC pilot’s dream sky. There were cumies everywhere. The flats were also peppered with massive dust devils, and the wind was light from the west. Before I knew it I had made it to the city of Mansfield and broke my personal straight distance record of 18 miles! I was really high under a nice cumie now but had to be extra careful right before and over Mansfield since there were a lot of clouds which were shadowing the ground.

Soon I was over Sims Corner. Now I had to decide if I should fly south to Coulee City and then continue NE to Wilbur or just go straight east and cross Banks Lake. Before my flight I had planned to take the long route and fly south to Coulee City and then head NE toward Wilbur, so that I could stay near main roads, and I also wasn’t sure how difficult it was going to be crossing the lake. Going straight east from Sims Corner to Banks Lake would be the faster route, but there were no main roads, and I’d have to cross the lake.

But it was an easy decision now. I didn’t expect the conditions to be so good, and I was really high. There was a massive dustie within easy glide on the lake rim. I drifted in this dustie which took me to 10K over the lake. I was kept company by lots of straw, dust and debris. I was getting a little chilled being so high. During this part of my flight, the scenery was especially spectacular. I took a moment to soak it all in.

I hopped a couple more dusties and was now over Almira. I continued flying to Wilbur. I couldn’t believe my eyes at this point. Just the other day I was wondering if my goal of flying to Wilbur or farther was an unrealistic goal and here I was right over the city. I was so excited, that I just wanted to land there. But I wasn’t going to stop until I absolutely had to!

It was getting later and there weren’t many dusties anymore, but there was still a cloudstreet under which I continued cloud hopping and flying east. By around 5:00 PM I had flown all the way to Creston. This is crazy I thought!

As I continued flying east of Creston I started to see trees! The thermals were getting weaker as the evening approached, and now I was getting very low. My last thermal was a few miles east of Creston.

Finally at about 5:30, I landed right on the side of hwy 2 about 12 miles short of Davenport. A van, whizzing by, honked right as I was landing. I doubt they had a clue where I came from!

Excitedly, I checked my GPS and found out that I flown 76 miles! I was ecstatic! I stared out into the distance toward Chelan where I had come from. I was just speechless.

Fortunately my cell phone had a connection, and so I immediately called home to report my flight and then called my mom, who had to drive for hours to get me, for retrieve (I’m extremely fortunate to have such a great, supportive mom!).

It’s amazing what you can achieve if you try hard and persevere (and get a little lucky!). This has been proven at times in my life, but more in paragliding than anything else so far. During my childhood I spent countless hours dreaming and imagining how wonderful it would be to fly like a bird. In the summer of 2003 that dream came true. And five years later, an XC flight that I spent over a year only dreaming about and planning for, became a reality.